A Guide to Acrylic Painting
What Do I Need to Start Painting in Acrylics?
What’s The Difference Between Professional, Artist and Student Grade Acrylic Paint?
What Are The Different Types of Acrylic Paint Available?
Adding Mediums to Acrylic Paint
Acrylic Primer and Acrylic Gesso
What Is The Best Surface for Acrylic Painting?
What is Acrylic Paint?
Acrylic paint is versatile and easy to use. It comes in many varieties and can be modified with mediums to fit your needs.
If you're new to acrylic painting, Acrylic Painting for Beginners: What You Need to Get Started is a great place to start.
Acrylic paint is bright, smooth, and reliable. It has been used by artists like David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Bowling, and Roy Lichtenstein. It’s great for artists who want to make bold, vibrant work.
Acrylic paint is great for mixed media with wet and dry media on a range of surfaces. Plus, it’s easy to clean without solvents, making it perfect for painting at home.
Acrylic paints dry quickly, but the time it takes depends on how thick the paint is and the conditions around it. A brush stroke of thick paint mixed with some water can dry in a few minutes to a few hours, usually within a day.
What do I need to start painting in acrylics?
You can start painting with the following materials:
- A few brushes or a palette knife
- A palette to mix your colors on
- A jar of water
- A rag
- A canvas
Most acrylic paint sets are ‘heavy body’ in consistency. This means the paint holds its shape as it is squeezed from the tube, or may only spread out onto your palette slightly. These paints, like all other acrylics, can be made more fluid by mixing in a little water.
Any brush works for acrylic painting. Stiff brushes are great for thick paint, while soft brushes are better for thin, watery color. If you want a versatile brush, choose one with medium-fine hair and good spring, like most synthetic or hog brushes.
A palette knife is useful for mixing colors on your palette, as well as making thick, impasto marks of color on your support.
Palettes can be flat or have wells to keep colors separate. Wells are useful if you like using very fluid paint.
The support on which you paint can be textured or completely smooth. The texture of a canvas will add vibrancy to your colors and make it easier for paint to adhere to the surface. Completely smooth supports, such as a primed wooden panel, make it easy to move paint around. You can also lift color from the surface more easily as well.
As you gain experience, try using mediums. They can change the flow, transparency, and texture of your paint. Mixing different types, such as impasto and ink, can also create new textures. Tools like palette knives and extra brushes can enhance your process as you discover your style.
What is the difference between professional, artist, and student-grade acrylic paint?
Professional grade acrylic paints are the best quality. They have just the right balance of the finest pigments and resins. The characteristics of the pigments in each paint shape how the paint behaves. Each color can vary in texture, drying time, opacity, and staining.
Artist grade acrylics often use the same pigments as professional paints, but in smaller amounts. Extra fillers make the paints more consistent and cheaper across the range. They also mask some qualities such as opacity, sheen, and drying time.
Student grade acrylics are cheaper and great for beginners. They have less pigment, and fillers make the paint more uniform and less vibrant. While not as strong as professional or artist grade paints, student grade paints are still good for learning and making great art on a budget.
You can also tell the quality of paint by checking how many price bands, or ‘series’, it has. Higher grade paints usually have more price bands because some pigments cost more than others. Lower grade paints tend to have fewer price bands.
What are the different types of acrylic paint available?
Acrylic paint comes in different formats, from fluid to thick, for various uses. The thickness of paint is called ‘body’. The thickness doesn’t affect the color strength or quality. The best type of acrylic paint for you depends on your style and painting surface. All acrylic brands and formulas are intermixable.
Heavy Body acrylic paints are the thickest and heaviest. They’re also the most popular. With a texture similar to soft butter, they’re the closest to oil paints in handling. They retain brush marks and gestures well. They also hold their own on rougher canvases.
Soft Body acrylic paints are smooth and have a consistency like yoghurt. They are thick enough to paint easily on their own and great for mixing with mediums.
Fluid acrylic paints have a texture like double cream. Supplied in a bottle, they are perfect for smooth brushing or staining effects and are great for glazes and finely detailed work.
Acrylic Ink is the most fluid of the acrylic paints. It is made of super fine pigments suspended in an acrylic emulsion that is as fluid as water. Acrylic Ink is intensely colored and dries with a soft gloss finish. It can be applied using an airbrush, pen or brush. This is the consistency of acrylic used to fill empty marker pens.
Airbrush acrylics are like acrylic ink but less likely to clog airbrush equipment. They are also used for staining, a technique where fluid acrylics are painted on unprimed canvas. Since unprimed canvas repels water, Flow Release is added to the paint or used to wet the canvas before staining. This helps the paint flow smoothly without beading up.
Open acrylic paints dry slowly. This lets you paint wet-on-wet and blend colors on the canvas. They are perfect for artists who want to use techniques that are usually achieved with oil paint.
Interactive acrylics dry like regular acrylics, but they have a special ‘unlocking formula’. This will re-wet dried paint or slow drying if added to wet paint. Once you’re finished, the Fast Medium/Fixer seals the paint. After this, the paint can no longer be re-wet.
Acrylic gouache is a creamy paint with a matte finish. It smooths out brush marks and is popular with illustrators. If you want to paint flat areas of color, it’s a good choice. Most acrylic gouache ranges do not rewet after drying, except for Lascaux Acrylic Gouache, which can be rewet if water sits on it. Not to be confused with regular gouache, which is water soluble, easy to rewet, and works like opaque watercolor.
Acrylic markers are bright and bold pens filled with acrylic paint. They are great for mixed media painting and drawing techniques. They have strong coverage, dry quickly, and are water and abrasion-proof. They work well on bright or painted surfaces and adhere to most materials, from paper to metal.
Acrylic Spray paint allows you to apply thin layers of bold color on a range of surfaces. Some acrylic sprays contain solvent. For these, it is advisable to wear a fume mask or use in well-ventilated spaces. Some sprays are water based and do not emit fumes, so are safe to use indoors.
The low pressure system in some ranges lets you carefully control your application. You can create fine lines or broad splashes by adjusting the pressure. Spray paints are fun to use on their own or with other acrylics like markers and regular paint.
Adding Mediums to Acrylic Paint
While you’re trying out your new colors, it’s good to be aware of the mediums that are available to you.
A medium is something added to a paint to change its properties – to thicken or thin it, to change the rate it dries, to add texture, and much more. If your paint isn’t behaving quite as you want it to, there’ll be a medium out there to help.
Altering body can be done with gels, pastes, flow enhancers, or fluid mediums. You can use water if you need to thin your paint, but too much will break down the structure of the paint, making it brittle when dry. Drastic changes in consistency are best achieved with flow enhancers or fluid mediums, which maintain the paint’s ability to form a sturdy film when drying.
Gels and pastes increase the body of paint in slightly different ways. Pastes tend to add bulk and are often opaque, while gels are viscous and clear. Regular gel has the same consistency as heavy body acrylic paint and will extend color without thinning the body. Heavy gel and extra heavy gel will add bulk.
Altering drying time is a handy trick to be aware of. Adding a little retarder to your paint will give you more time to work with it, increasing what is called its ‘open’ time. Golden Open Acrylics are designed to be workable for longer without adding a retarder. They have a consistency that falls between heavy body and fluid paints.
Changing the texture of your paint can inspire creativity. You can add stringy gels for drips or sandy grit to let you use pastels on your work. Acrylic paint offers endless texture possibilities. There are many wet and dry mediums, too many to list them all here!
One benefit of acrylic paint is that you can use it to glue paper and fabric to your surface. A painting made with acrylic and collage is called mixed media. The most common acrylic gel used for collage is Soft Gel.
Golden offers a huge range of acrylic paint mediums, such as gels, additives, and effect pastes. Read our Overview of Golden Acrylic Mediums on Jackson's Art Blog.
Brushes for Acrylic Painting
Brushes for acrylic painting usually have long handles. This lets the artist move more freely and step back from the easel while painting. This helps to create more expressive strokes.
Brushes can be bought with many different types of fiber. Thicker, stiffer hair, like hog, is ideal for bold, textured painting. Soft hair, such as sable, is better for applying thin layers of color, like glazes and washes.
Acrylic brushes come in filbert, long flat, short flat (also called brights), and round shapes. Watercolor brushes come in more varied shapes and can also be used with acrylics. Keep in mind that most watercolor brushes have short handles and softer hair than most acrylic brushes.
Soft Brushes
Soft hair brushes are great for smooth applications and blending. They give great control with fluid paints. Examples include watercolor brushes, sable brushes, and Jackson’s Procryl. Plus, some varieties of hog including Shiro Hog Bristle Brushes.
Medium Brushes
Medium stiff brushes are more likely to leave a mark in heavy body paint. They are still soft enough for blending techniques. Most oil and acrylic brushes could be considered ‘medium’.
Stiff Brushes
Stiff brushes are suited to impasto painting. They have very little give in them. Brushes like Da Vinci Impasto will feel comparable to painting with a palette knife, except you will leave an imprint of brush hairs in your thickly applied paint marks. Jackson’s Crane Brushes are stiff but not quite as stiff as Da Vinci Impasto. They may offer more versatility in the range of marks and blending techniques.
Palette Knives
Palette knives are useful for mixing colors on a palette, as brushes get very loaded with paint easily and it can be difficult to get the paint back on the palette! It is much easier to use the smooth metal of a palette knife to move the color around.
Cheaper palette knives tend to be thin, but this can be to an artist’s advantage when using a palette knife as a painting tool, as it allows for a little more spring. More expensive palette knives are made with a sturdy carbon steel blade, and can almost be used as a paint scraper. A paint scraper is a tool with a slighter sharper blade, which is effective in taking dried layers of paint off a painting support or palette.
Acrylic Primer and Acrylic Gesso
There are two main types of acrylic primer: regular acrylic primer and gesso. Both are made with acrylic resins and mixed with chalk for texture and absorbency.
Acrylic Gesso replicates the qualities of traditional gesso. It contains a mixture of chalk or whiting and rabbit skin glue. It is absorbent with a slightly heavier tooth than acrylic primer – the more layers you apply, the more absorbent it becomes. Because of this, a few coats are required if you are going to apply oil color to it, as there is a risk of the oil sinking to the fibers of the canvas support and causing damage.
You can also prime your canvas with black gesso. This creates a strong contrast with transparent colors. There are also other acrylic primer colors to choose from. Clear acrylic primer allows you to keep the natural look of the canvas while preventing the fabric from absorbing too much paint.
Acrylic primer dries smoother than acrylic gesso and is less absorbent. A few coats with light sanding in between will make a good surface to paint on. The white color of gesso or primer helps colors to maintain their luminosity. All white gessos and primers can be tinted by adding acrylic color. Acrylic primer, unlike oil primer, does not cause natural fibers to rot over time. This means they can be used without a glue size layer to seal the surface.
Gessos and primers should be applied in thin, even layers for the best results. Multiple thin coats create a better surface to work on. Sanding between coats with fine sandpaper will help achieve a super smooth finish. It’s recommended to use a wide, soft hog hair flat brush for application.
What is the best surface for Acrylic Painting?
Before you shop for a surface, you need to consider what’s available. There are a lot of choices to be made, so think about what you are using it for, where you will be painting, and what will help you achieve the results you are looking for.
Canvas panels and boards are made by gluing canvas onto a rigid board. This provides the texture of a canvas surface, but not the bounce you would get from painting on stretched canvas.
Wood panels also offer a rigid surface. These are ideal for paints that can crack, such as oil, egg tempera, encaustic, and metal gilding (because an inflexible surface is the most archival). You can prime the wood and paint directly on it. Or, if you prefer the texture of canvas or paper, you can use acrylic gel and adhere canvas or paper to the surface, then prime and paint on that.
Aluminum art panels are a great choice for artists. They are strong, lightweight and archival. Unlike canvases with wooden frames, or wood panels, these panels do not release gases over time and are less affected by humidity and temperature change. Their low weight makes them good for large artworks that need to be transported.
Ready made stretched canvases take away time consuming stretching and priming processes. They are available in a range of weights, grains and sizes. You can also stretch canvases yourself using canvas off the roll and stretcher bars. Or, you can have a bespoke canvas made in a custom size.
Canvas sheets and pads are specially prepared for acrylic painting. These primed sheets are lightweight and perfect for plein air painting or testing new techniques. Their portability makes them ideal for artists on the go.
To read more about acrylic surfaces, have a look at our Guide to Canvas and our Guide to Boards & Panels.
Ready Made Surface for Acrylic Painting
Canvases are stretched tightly on a frame, creating a slight bounce when you paint. To avoid issues, the canvas should be tight across the whole frame, and the fabric should align squarely with the edges without any skewing.
Pre-Stretched Canvases
Ready made canvases are stretched over wooden frames with beveled edges. These edges help prevent the stretcher bars from leaving marks on the canvas.
When a canvas is 'universally primed,' it means a layer of white acrylic primer has been applied. This makes the canvas ready for both oil and acrylic painting.
Types of Canvas Fixing and Depth Options
Canvases are either fixed with tacks on the sides or staples on the back. Ready-made canvases also come in different depths. Standard depth canvases have a classic look and are easier to frame, while deeper canvases are common in modern art. The depth of the canvas is a personal choice and doesn't affect how it performs.
Support for Larger Canvases
For larger canvases, thin stretcher bars may need extra support, like a crossbar, to prevent warping. This helps the canvas stay flat and secure.
Choosing Canvases for Different Art Styles
Jackson’s and Daler Rowney offer canvases that are great for landscapes because of their long, thin shapes. They can also be used for abstract art. Jackson’s Claessens canvases are high quality and come in extra fine linen, medium grain linen, clear primed linen, and deep edge cotton. These give you plenty of choices for different painting styles.
Canvas Panels
Canvas panels are made from compressed card with primed cotton canvas glued and wrapped around the edges. These are perfect for quick sketches and can easily be framed as finished works. Belle Arti artist canvas boards use acrylic primed cotton glued to MDF, which provides a sturdy surface with a canvas texture.
Canvas Pads and Blocks
Canvas pads are great for experimenting and can be cut to size. Belle Arti offer pads with sheets of universally primed canvas glued on one edge, so you can paint on them while they’re still in the pad or tape them to a board for extra stability.
Acrylic and oil blocks by Clairefontaine, Hahnemuehle, and Daler Rowney provide specially treated papers with a linen texture. These are perfect for both oils and acrylics. Blocks are glued on all four sides, which keeps the paper flat when working outdoors. When finished, you can easily detach the sheet using a palette knife.
Acrylic paintings on paper can be displayed to gallery standards by mounting them on a backing board and framing them. This is also a cost effective option for art classes and groups working on a budget.
Bespoke Canvas to Order
If you can't find the right canvas for you, try our 'Bespoke Canvas Builder.' This is helpful if you need to paint a commission in a specific size. Jackson's offers custom canvases with strong aluminium bars or traditional wood frames. You can also choose from a range of French and Italian cottons and linens.
Make Your Own Canvas
Many artists like to create their own canvases, and Jackson's offers all the tools and supplies you need. But before you begin, you'll need to make some decisions.
What Stretcher Bars Should I Use?
First, decide how deep you want your canvas to be - this is how far it sticks out from the wall. If you choose narrower bars for a shallow depth, and your canvas is over a meter long or wide, make sure to order cross bars for extra support. Deep edge canvases usually don’t need cross bars, especially if they have aluminum reinforced bars. However, cross bars can help when carrying the canvas, though they may add to the weight.
Stretcher bars come mitre cut at the ends for easy assembly and have slots for centre bars. They also have beveled edges. Keep in mind that assembling aluminum bars is different from wooden ones. Be sure to read the instructions on the product pages before you buy.
Cotton Duck or Linen?
When choosing a canvas, you’ll need to decide between cotton duck or linen. Cotton duck is affordable and great for beginners. It's smooth and easy to work with. Linen is more expensive but offers a stronger, finer surface. It’s often used by professionals. The choice depends on your budget and the style of your work.
How to Stretch
Canvas pliers are vital for achieving a good amount of tension when stretching your canvas. Place your canvas frame in the middle of your piece of canvas and make sure you have enough canvas to wrap around to the back of the frame. Use the pliers to grab enough of the material between the teeth of the pliers, and then use the ridge on the underside of the pliers to gain leverage over the edge of the frame and stretch around to the back of the frame.
Always stretch canvas from the middle of the bars moving outwards, and always insert staples opposite the ones you have just put in. A staple gun is the easiest to use, while using small tacks is the traditional method. Finished artwork made on unstretched canvas can be fixed to a frame once dry, and does not need as much tension when being stapled. Just make sure they are fixed square to the frame and that you do not lose too much of the image when wrapping the work around to the back.
Staples and Tacks
Tacks can be gently hammered in the edge of the canvas frame before a staple secures the canvas to the back – this does help a little with achieving a good amount of tension, and also adds a traditional look to the finished support. The pressure that a staple gun provides makes it easy to punch in staples to secure the canvas to the back of the canvas frame. Remember to leave enough room at the corners to fold your canvas neatly before punching in the final staples.
Your canvas is now ready to use, but you may wish to prime it in order to create a less absorbent surface that is white and therefore enhances the luminosity of your colors.
Palettes for Acrylic Painting
Tear-off palettes make cleanup easy. You can mix your colors on the waxy sheets, then tear off the top layer and throw it away when you're out of space or done painting. However, they do create more waste in your studio and can flap around during outdoor sessions, unless you're using Jackson's or New Wave paper palettes, which are secured on the sides.
Stay wet palettes prolong the open time of your acrylic paint, minimizing waste and allowing you to keep pre-mixed colors on your palette for the next painting session. They consist of a tray in which you pour water, with a thin sponge and membrane sheet placed over the top. The moisture stops the paint from drying and thus allows you to work with your paint for longer. The palette also comes with a lid which restricts the amount of air getting to the paint, which helps slow down the drying.
A traditional flat palette is ideal for mixing heavy body paints. These palettes are usually made of glass, wood, or plastic, and have a smooth, non-absorbent surface. Using a white palette helps you see how the paint will look on a light surface. For glass palettes, you can place a white sheet of paper underneath to improve color visibility.
Untreated wooden palettes can be very absorbent and may stain when first used. To avoid this, varnish your wooden palette. You can also coat it with acrylic gesso, then let it dry completely before use.
A palette with wells will help to keep fluid color mixes separate and clean. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. We recommend the biggest that is practical, with plenty of wells so you can create lots of color mixes. Some also come with an airtight lid.
Useful Tools for Acrylic Painting
Spray Bottle of Water
To prevent your paints from drying too fast, give your palette a misting with a spray bottle of water every five minutes or so.
Palette Knives for Acrylic Painting
Palette knives are great tools for both heavy body and soft body acrylics. They can be used instead of brushes to apply thick layers of paint, creating smooth or textured effects. Palette knives are also helpful for scraping away wet paint and mixing colors on your palette.
Unlike brushes, palette knives are easier to clean. Just wipe them with a rag and they're ready for more mixing. They come in different shapes and sizes, so having one or two in your studio can help keep your color mixing organized. A good place to start is with Jackson’s Extra Crank Offset Painting Knives. These are durable and offer the right flexibility for mixing and painting.
Easels for Acrylic Painting
An easel is by no means essential. If you work standing up, you could tape paper to a wall or hang your canvas or panel from panel pins or screws. Alternatively, you could work on the floor or prop your canvas up on a table.
However, the right easel can allow you to move your work easily to better lighting conditions, or help you to work with a healthy posture, avoiding unnecessary aches and pains during long painting sessions. When choosing an easel, you should ask yourself a set of questions.
- Will you be painting at a table? If so, a table easel is a compact device that will hold your paper upright. Many have a drawer in which you can store your paints and brushes. They are easy to store and transport.
- Will you need to have a portable easel? (perhaps for painting en plein air) If so, a sketching easel is what you’ll need. Sketching easels are made from aluminum or wood. An easy to carry sketching easel will be lightweight, with telescopic legs allowing it to fold into a compact portable size. However, if you are likely to paint in strong wind, it may be at risk of falling over. Some string and tent pegs can be a great way to get around this.
- Do you need an easel that will tilt horizontally? Will you be painting with lots of fluid acrylic which might run? Some studio and sketching easels will tilt fully to a horizontal working position, which can be useful if you need to ensure your dilute paint applications do not run.
- Do you need an easel that will hold very large work? The largest studio easels are H-frame and stable for paintings up to 235cm. However, they will take up space and be heavy to move around. Crank handle easels make it easier to adjust the height of your painting.
Water Pot or Brush Washer
A water pot or brush washer is essential for rinsing brushes. While most water pots will have a ridge to rest your brush, a brush washer will have a ledge at the bottom that keeps paint sediment separate from the clean water in your pot. This helps keep brushes cleaner for longer and gets more rinsing capacity from your water.
Silicone Painting Tools
Silicone Catalyst Tools come in different shapes, great for moving paint or making unique imprints in heavy body paint. Comb shaped tools let you scrape lines to create varied textures. They are worth testing if you want to try new ways of mark making.
Brush Cleaner/Soap
Most acrylic paint is relatively fast drying. This means it is important to keep brushes clean to avoid paint drying around the hairs. Using brush soap will condition the hairs of your brush and help keep its shape for longer.
Wipe off most of the paint before washing your brush. Avoid rinsing acrylic paint down the sink, as it can enter the water system. To learn more, read Acrylic Painting, Microplastics, and the Environment.
Popular brush soaps include Da Vinci Brush Soap and The Master’s Brush Cleaner and Preserver. Learn more in our ‘Brush Cleaning Guide’ on Jackson’s Art Blog.
Varnishes for Acrylic Painting
An acrylic varnish protects your painting from dust and damage. Some also block UV light, which helps keep colors from fading. We recommend using an isolation coat before varnishing. A soft gloss gel medium also works well for this. It makes it easier to remove the varnish later without harming the painting.
Always apply varnish in a clean, dust-free space. Make sure to wipe off any dust or dirt before you start. Check the label to ensure the varnish is removable.
Spray Varnish or Brush Varnish?
Acrylic varnishes come in two forms: spray cans and bottles. Both have their pros and cons.
Using Spray Varnish:
Test before spraying: Start spraying away from your artwork (on a nearby surface) to check the pressure needed. This helps control the amount of varnish coming out.
Apply evenly: Move the spray over the painting to create an even layer. If you pause, stop spraying to avoid uneven coverage.
Thin layers are better: Apply several thin layers rather than one thick one. This allows the varnish to dry properly and stay more stable over time.
Drying time: Check the label for how long each layer needs to dry before adding the next one.
Turn your work: Turn the artwork 90 degrees with each layer to ensure even application.
Best for delicate work: Spray varnish is good for delicate or textured surfaces. This is because a brush might cause damage or uneven spots.
Using Brush Varnish:
Stir, don’t shake: Stir the varnish well but don’t shake it. Shaking can create air bubbles.
Check the consistency: If the varnish is too thick, thin it slightly with water or acrylic thinner.
Use the right brush: A stiff-haired varnish brush (such as hog hair with split ends) works best. Apply the varnish on a flat surface, if possible.
Load the brush lightly: Only load the bottom third of the brush with varnish. Loading more will make it harder to apply evenly.
Thin layers are key: Just like with spray varnish, it's important to apply thin, even layers.
Matting agents: If using a varnish with matting agents (satin, gloss, or matte finish), save it for the final layer. This helps preserve the depth and brightness of the colors.
Cleaning: Clean your tools while the varnish is still wet, using soap and water. For dried acrylic varnish, use ammonia to clean your brushes.
What is MSA Varnish?
MSA stands for Mineral Spirit Acrylic. They are made with acrylic resin but are not water soluble. MSA varnish is solvent based and forms a tougher, less permeable film than water based acrylic varnishes. They are great for work that is to be exhibited outdoors.